John Leland (antiquary) claimed that the area around Maidenhead's present town centre was a small Roman settlement called Alaunodunum. He stated that it had all but disappeared by the end of the Roman occupation. Although his source is unknown, there is documented and physical evidence of Roman settlement in the town with two well known villa sites in the town, one being in the suburb of Cox Green, and the other just west of the town centre on Castle Hill, which sits alongside the route of the Camlet Way. This was a Roman road that ran between Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) and Colchester (Camulodunum) via St Albans,(Verulamium) and passes through the present town centre. Remnants of the road have been unearthed at various locations nearby, but its exact route is unclear.

Maidenhead's name stems from the riverside area where the first "New wharf" or "Maiden Hythe" was built, as early as Saxon times. In the year 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex and disembarked from their longboats by the old wharf/ ferry crossing at Maidenhead, and fought their way over land to Reading where they set up camp and made it their regional power base.[1] The area of the present town centre was originally a small Anglo-Saxon town known as "South Ellington" and would have likely developed on the Camlet Way (the only known road through the area at the time and site of Leland's Alaunodunum) as the Bath Road was not re routed until the late 13th century. Maidenhead is recorded in the Domesday Book as the settlement of Ellington in the hundred of Beynhurst.[2]

A wooden bridge was erected across the river in about 1280 to replace the ferry in South Ellington.[3] The Great West Road to Reading, Gloucester and Bristol was diverted over the new bridge. Previously, it had kept to the north bank and crossed the Thames by ford at Cookham, and the medieval town, later to become Maidenhead grew up on the site of Alaunodunum and South Ellington, between the new bridge and the bottom of Castle Hill.[4] Within a few years a new wharf was constructed next to the bridge and the South Ellington name was dropped with the town becoming known as Maidenhythe (literally meaning "new wharf"). The earliest record of this name change is in the Bray Court manorial rolls of 1296.[3]

The bridge led to the growth of medieval Maidenhead as a market town and a major stopping point for coaches on the journeys between London, Gloucester and Bath and the town became populated with numerous inns. By the 18th century, Maidenhead was one of the busiest coaching towns in England with over ninety coaches a day passing through the town. The late 18th century Bear Hotel on the High Street is the best of the town's old coaching inns surviving to this day.

The current Maidenhead Bridge, a local landmark, dates from 1777 and was built at a cost of £19,000.

King Charles I met his children for the last time before his execution in 1649 at the Greyhound Inn[5] on the High Street, the site of which is now a branch of the NatWest Bank. A plaque commemorates their meeting.

When the Great Western Railway came to the town, it began to expand. Muddy roads were replaced and public services were installed. The High Street began to change again, and substantial Victorian red brick architecture began to appear throughout the town. Maidenhead became its own entity in 1894, being split from the civil parishes of both Bray and Cookham.

Maidenhead Citadel Corps of the Salvation Army was first opened in the town in the mid-1880s. Maidenhead Citadel Band was soon founded in 1886 by Bandmaster William Thomas, who later became mayor of the town.

The Maidenhead urban area includes urban and suburban regions within the bounds of the town, called Maidenhead Court, North Town, Furze Platt (which in 2012 gained a conservation area), Pinkneys Green, Highway, Tittle Row, Boyn Hill, Fishery and Bray Wick; as well as built-up areas in surrounding civil parishes: Cox Green and Altwood in Cox Green parish, Woodlands Park in White Waltham parish, and part of Bray Wick in Bray parish. Bray village is linked to Maidenhead by the exclusive Fishery Estate which lies on the banks of the Thames. To the east, on the opposite side of the river from Maidenhead, is the large village of Taplow in Buckinghamshire which almost adjoins the suburban village of Burnham, Buckinghamshire, which is in itself part of the urban area of the large, industrial town of Slough. To the north are the Cookhams, Cookham Village, Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean. To the west is the area of Pinkneys Green. These lie south of the Berkshire-Buckinghamshire border, which is formed by the River Thames (which then bends southwards to form the Maidenhead-Taplow border). To the south is the village of Holyport. Continuing by road to the South-East leads to the historic, royal twin towns of Windsor and Eton.

Maidenhead was originally the planned western terminus for the Crossrail line (to and through London) until Reading station, situated 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Maidenhead, was chosen.

Maidenhead lies immediately west of the Taplow ridge; a wooded spur of the Chilterns which rises dramatically above one of the most scenic stretches of the Thames. The ridge is crowned by the spectacular Cliveden House which can be seen from various parts of the town.

The distances between Maidenhead and surrounding towns are as follows:

Maidenhead clock tower was built for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and is located outside the railway station.

Maidenhead clock tower outside the railway station

Maidenhead Bridge was built in 1777. It takes the A4 over the Thames to join Maidenhead to Taplow.

All Saints' Church, Boyne Hill was completed in 1857 is one of the finest examples of the early work of the architect G. E. Street. The site is also regarded by many as the premier architectural site in the town. The church, consecrated on 2 December 1857 by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, became the first ecclesiastical parish in the Borough of Maidenhead.[12]

Maidenhead has a long history, going back to the Anglo-Saxon and Roman periods. Despite this, there are no visible architectural remains in the present day town to show this. Although there are attractive residential and green areas in and around Maidenhead, the town centre has been redeveloped in piecemeal fashion since the 1960s and subsequently has lost most of its traditional English market town character. The High Street/ Bridge Street areas only possess one heavily restored Medieval building and a handful of Georgian buildings in the Chapel Arches area. Research by the New Economics Foundation rated Maidenhead as an example of a clone town[13] and the town centre is regarded as in need of improvement. In December 2007, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead set up the Partnership for the Regeneration of Maidenhead (PRoM), which in October 2008 launched a comprehensive 20 Year Vision and Action Plan for rejuvenating the town centre. Launch of the plan coincided with confirmation by central government that Maidenhead will be part of the new Crossrail project.[14] PRoM's plans highlight five key developments which will help shape the town for the future. A large new high rise retail and residential development called 'The Landing' is due for construction shortly, along with an upgraded train station and transport interchange, movement of the football and bowls clubs and linking Kidwells Park into the High Street. The Chapel Arches retail development is under construction, restoring the old Thames tributaries which run through a historic section of the town centre as an attractive feature and amenity in the town. New apartments, boutique stores and restaurants, bars, and cafes are to be a feature of this new waterfront quarter of the town centre. The adjoining historic section of the High Street around the 18th Century Chapel Arches Bridge has been restored as part of the development. Existing Georgian and Victorian buildings have been rejuvenated and the adjoining new builds have been sensitively constructed in the same historic style to bring back a sense of history and lost heritage to this part of the town centre.

Maidenhead offers High Street shopping facilities including Nicholson's Centre, a shopping centre on the site of Nicholson's brewery. The town also offers an eight-screen Odeon multiplex cinema, a leisure centre (with swimming pool), called the Magnet, and a bowling alley. Help with shopping in the town centre can be provided by the Shopmobility service on the ground floor of Nicholson's car park.

Waltham Place Estate on Church Hill includes an ornamental garden integrated within a 200-acre (80 ha) organic and biodynamic farm estate. It is promoted by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.[17]

The Reitlinger Open Space on Guards Club Road is named after Henry Reitlinger, a leading collector of fine art. On his death in 1950, the collection was vested in a trust, the Henry Reitlinger Bequest. The trustees were his adopted daughter, Mrs. M. Cocke, and a Maidenhead solicitor, who chose to house the collection at Oldfield House, now a private residence; the building dates back to 1892.[18]

The A4 runs through the town and crosses the Thames over Maidenhead Bridge. The town lies adjacent to junction 8/9 on the M4 motorway and is accessed via the A404(M) and A308(M). The A308(M), A404(M) and A404 form the Marlow and Maidenhead bypass which also acts as an important link between the M4, to the south of the town, and M40 at High Wycombe.

The town's football team, Maidenhead United, play at York Road, which is the oldest football ground in the world continuously used by the same team. Maidenhead United were crowned champions of National League South at the end of the 2016/17 season. Due to this, the team were automatically promoted to the National League (fifth tier of English Football) for the 2017/18 season.

The Maidenhead Rugby Club was founded in 1921 and is the largest organised sports team in the town. It consists of four men's teams, a women's team and a large youth programme. The men's team attracts international talent from all over the world including American Tobin Thompson and Fijian Antinio Mawara.

The town is also home to Maidenhead Sailing Club at Summerleaze Lake which is home to one of the largest Albacore fleets in the area. Maidenhead Golf Club was founded in 1896 and is situated close by the town centre and station in Shoppenhangers Road. The course was designed by the eminent golf architect Harry S. Colt.

FPD- A Senior social football team has played teams from the twin towns starting with a home and away leg with Bad Godesberg. Future fixtures against St-Cloud and Frascati to follow.

Each year youths from the four towns and Berlin-Steglitz (twinned with Bad Godesberg) compete against one another in sports such as volleyball, football, athletics and swimming in the Twin Towns Sports Competition, hosted in turn by each of the five towns. In Maidenhead town centre there are roads named after three of the twin towns (Bad Godesberg Way, Frascati Way and St Cloud Way). Local schools often participate in student exchanges with pupils being exchanged between schools within the twinned towns.

Maidenhead's riverside location has drawn many celebrities, including former broadcaster Michael Parkinson (b. 1935). The Spice Girls shared a house in Maidenhead for a year preceding their rise to stardom.[27][28]

1.
Maidenhead Bridge
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Maidenhead Bridge is a Grade I listed bridge carrying the A4 road over the River Thames between Maidenhead, Berkshire and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. It crosses the Thames on the reach above Bray Lock, about half a mile below Boulters Lock, the first bridge was built of wood in 1280 in what was then the hamlet of South Ellington. Within a few years a wharf was constructed next to the bridge, the earliest record of this name change is in the Bray Court manorial rolls of 1296. In 1297 a grant of pontage for the charge of tolls for repairs to the bridge was awarded, in 1335 another three years pontage was granted to the baliffs and good men of Maidenhythe on wares passing under or over the bridge. Only a century later the bridge had fallen into disrepair. Since it was first built, the bridge had a hermitage, another chapel in the town lent its name to The Guild of St Andrew and St Mary Magdelene which was formed in 1452 to repair the bridge and to maintain the chapel after which it was named. The corporation was not permitted to rebuild the chapel but were allowed to levy toll and hold a weekly market. The charter was renewed by James I who added a Whit Wednesday fair, during the Civil War the bridge again fell into disrepair. Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, a commander of Parliamentary forces reported on 25 September 1644 that his army was constrained to wait at Uxbridge as Maidenhead Bridge is broken. Colonel Whitcote the Parliamentary Commander at Maidenhead acquired seven oaks with which to make repairs, the bridge wardens petitoned the restored monarch – Charles II – in 1672 but had to wait until 1679 for a warrant for 20 oaks to be issued. On the accession of James II all of the benefits granted by James I were restored, although James restoration of benefits included the annual quota of oaks, in 1714 the corporation complained to the Lord Treasurer about the poor quality of the trees. The corporation also claimed that revenues were adversely affected by the opening of a toll-free bridge in Datchet. A further eighteen years passed before the treasury granted a warrant for 23 oaks, in 1750 the bridge was again in a state of disrepair and a contract for great works was awarded to Mr Stiff Leadbetter of Eaton. The estimated cost was £600 and the actual cost on the bill was £794 9s 2d – equivalent to £113 thousand today. This prompted the corporation to consider the ongoing cost of maintaining the old structure. Mr Fuller White proposed a structure and Robert Taylor a thirteen-arch Portland stone bridge. The corporation preferred Taylors design but demanded that the original cost of £25,000 be reduced, Taylor therefore modified the design so that only the river arches were of Portland stone, the rest in brick. The rebuilding was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1771, works were delayed until a temporary ferry had been constructed and the foundation stone was laid by the Mayor of Maidenhead on 19 October 1772

2.
River Thames
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The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, the Thames drains the whole of Greater London. Its tidal section, reaching up to Teddington Lock, includes most of its London stretch and has a rise, in Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller. Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs and its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, in 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world – the $350,000 International Riverprize. The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys Thames. It has also suggested that it is not of Celtic origin. A place by the river, rather than the river itself, indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name Thames is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit. It is believed that Tamesubugus name was derived from that of the river, tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography. The rivers name has always pronounced with a simple t /t/, the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. A similar spelling from 1210, Tamisiam, is found in the Magna Carta, the Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as River Thames or Isis down to Dorchester, richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *lowonida. An alternative, and simpler proposal, is that London may also be a Germanic word, for merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the London River. Londoners often refer to it simply as the river in such as south of the river. Thames Valley Police is a body that takes its name from the river. The marks of human activity, in cases dating back to Pre-Roman Britain, are visible at various points along the river

3.
Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the main county governance from 1889 to 1998 except for the separately administered County Borough of Reading, in 1974, significant alterations were made to the countys administrative boundaries although the traditional boundaries of Berkshire were not changed. The towns of Abingdon, Didcot and Wantage were transferred to Oxfordshire, Slough was gained from Buckinghamshire, since 1998, Berkshire has been governed by the six unitary authorities of Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham. It borders the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater London, Surrey, according to Asser, it takes its name from a large forest of box trees that was called Bearroc. Berkshire has been the scene of notable battles through its history. Alfred the Greats campaign against the Danes included the Battles of Englefield, Ashdown, Newbury was the site of two English Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle, another Battle of Reading took place on 9 December 1688. It was the only military action in England during the Glorious Revolution. Reading became the new county town in 1867, taking over from Abingdon, boundary alterations in the early part of the 20th century were minor, with Caversham from Oxfordshire becoming part of the Reading county borough, and cessions in the Oxford area. On 1 April 1974 Berkshires boundaries changed under the Local Government Act 1972, Berkshire took over administration of Slough and Eton and part of the former Eton Rural District from Buckinghamshire. 94 Signal Squadron still keep the Uffington White Horse in their insignia, the original Local Government White Paper would have transferred Henley-on-Thames from Oxfordshire to Berkshire, this proposal did not make it into the Bill as introduced. On 1 April 1998 Berkshire County Council was abolished under a recommendation of the Banham Commission, unlike similar reforms elsewhere at the same time, the non-metropolitan county was not abolished. Berkshire divides into two distinct sections with the boundary lying roughly on a north-south line through the centre of Reading. The eastern section of Berkshire lies largely to the south of the River Thames, in two places the county now includes land to the north of the river. Tributaries of the Thames, including the Loddon and Blackwater, increase the amount of low lying land in the area. Beyond the flood plains, the land rises gently to the county boundaries with Surrey, much of this area is still well wooded, especially around Bracknell and Windsor Great Park. In the west of the county and heading upstream, the Thames veers away to the north of the county boundary, leaving the county behind at the Goring Gap

4.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide

5.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

6.
Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of local government in England was the parish overseen by the parish church vestry committee. Vestries dealt with the administraction of both parochial and secular governmental matters, parishes were the successors of the manorial system and historically had been grouped into hundreds. Hundreds once exercised some supervising administrative function, however, these powers ebbed away as more and more civic and judicial powers were centred on county towns. From 1834 these parishes were grouped into Poor Law Unions, creating areas for administration of the Poor Law and these areas were later used for census registration and as the basis for sanitary provision. In 1894, based on these earlier subdivisions, the Local Government Act 1894 created urban districts and rural districts as sub-divisions of administrative counties, another reform in 1900 created 28 metropolitan boroughs as sub-divisions of the County of London. Meanwhile, from this date parish-level local government administration was transferred to civil parishes, the setting-down of the current structure of districts in England began in 1965, when Greater London and its 32 London boroughs were created. They are the oldest type of still in use. In 1974, metropolitan counties and non-metropolitan counties were created across the rest of England and were split into metropolitan districts, in London power is now shared again, albeit on a different basis, with the Greater London Authority. During the 1990s a further kind of district was created, the unitary authority, metropolitan boroughs are a subdivision of a metropolitan county. These are similar to unitary authorities, as the county councils were abolished in 1986. Most of the powers of the county councils were devolved to the districts but some services are run by joint boards, the districts typically have populations of 174,000 to 1.1 million. Non-metropolitan districts are second-tier authorities, which share power with county councils and they are subdivisions of shire counties and the most common type of district. These districts typically have populations of 25,000 to 200,000, the number of non-metropolitan districts has varied over time. Initially there were 296, after the creation of unitary authorities in the 1990s and late 2000s and these are single-tier districts which are responsible for running all local services in their areas, combining both county and district functions. They were created in the out of non-metropolitan districts, and often cover large towns. In addition, some of the smaller such as Rutland, Herefordshire

7.
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
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The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is home to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Legoland and it inherited royal borough status from Windsor, the site of Windsor Castle. The local authority is Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council and it became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 with the abolition of Berkshire County Council. It is the only Royal Borough outside Greater London, as with many other parts of the United Kingdom, the borough was affected by the UK storms of January-February 2014. The two seats are considered to be safe Conservative seats, the Royal Borough is currently under a Conservative administration. Elections for councillors to the Royal Borough take place four years. The political control of the Royal Borough is as follows,57 councillors represent the electorate of 23 wards, there are 14 parish councils and 1 town council in the borough. They are, Bisham, Bray, Cookham, Cox Green, Datchet, Eton, Horton, Hurley, Old Windsor, Shottesbrooke, Sunningdale, Sunninghill and Ascot, Waltham St Lawrence, White Waltham, the towns of Maidenhead and Windsor are unparished. The Windsor and Maidenhead LEA provides a system, with three-tier schools in Windsor. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is twinned with the following Towns, Neuilly-sur-Seine, saint-Cloud, France – established 1957 with Maidenhead. Bad Godesberg, Germany – established 1960 with Maidenhead, goslar, Germany – established 1969 with Royal Borough of New Windsor. Frascati, Italy – established 1972 with Maidenhead, kortrijk, Belgium – established 1981 with Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

8.
Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that areas that were part of an administrative county would be part of the county for all purposes. The greatest change was the creation of the County of London, which was both an administrative county and a county, it included parts of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent. Other differences were small and resulted from the constraint that urban sanitary districts were not permitted to straddle county boundaries, apart from Yorkshire, counties that were subdivided nevertheless continued to exist as ceremonial counties. In 1974, administrative counties and county boroughs were abolished, at this time, Lieutenancy was redefined to use the new metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Following a further rearrangement in 1996, Avon, Cleveland, Hereford and Worcester, Cleveland was partitioned between North Yorkshire and Durham. Hereford and Worcester was divided into the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Humberside was split between Lincolnshire and a new county of East Riding of Yorkshire. Rutland was restored as a ceremonial county, many county boroughs were re-established as unitary authorities, this involved establishing the area as an administrative county, but usually not as a ceremonial county. Most ceremonial counties are therefore entities comprising local authority areas, as they were from 1889 to 1974, the Association of British Counties, a traditional counties lobbying organisation, has suggested that ceremonial counties be restored to their ancient boundaries, as nearly as practicable. In present-day England, the ceremonial counties correspond to the shrieval counties, the Lieutenancies Act 1997 defines counties for the purposes of lieutenancies in terms of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties as well as Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. Although the term is not used in the Act, these counties are known as ceremonial counties. gov. uk

9.
Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, Eurostat also uses them to demarcate first level Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics regions within the European Union. The regions generally follow the boundaries of the former standard regions, the London region has a directly elected Mayor and Assembly. Six regions have local authority leaders boards to assist with correlating the headline policies of local authorities, the remaining two regions no longer have any administrative functions, having abolished their regional local authority leaders boards. In 1998, regional chambers were established in the eight regions outside of London, the regions also had an associated Government Office with some responsibility for coordinating policy, and, from 2007, a part-time regional minister within the Government. House of Commons regional Select Committees were established in 2009, Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011. Regional development agencies were public bodies established in all nine regions in 1998 to promote economic development and they had certain delegated functions, including administering European Union regional development funds, and received funding the central government as well. After about 500 AD, England comprised seven Anglo-Saxon territories – Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, the boundaries of some of these, which later unified as the Kingdom of England, roughly coincide with those of modern regions. During Oliver Cromwells Protectorate in the 1650s, the rule of the Major-Generals created 10 regions in England, proposals for administrative regions within England were mooted by the British government prior to the First World War. In 1912 the Third Home Rule Bill was passing through parliament, the Bill was expected to introduce a devolved parliament for Ireland, and as a consequence calls were made for similar structures to be introduced in Great Britain or Home Rule All Round. On 12 September the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, within England, he suggested that London, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the Midlands would make natural regions. While the creation of regional parliaments never became official policy, it was for a widely anticipated. In 1946 nine standard regions were set up, in central government bodies, statutory undertakings. However, these had declined in importance by the late 1950s, creation of some form of provinces or regions for England was an intermittent theme of post-Second World War British governments. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed the creation of eight provinces in England, one-fifth of the advisory councils would be nominees from central government. The boundaries suggested were the eight now existing for economic planning purposes, a minority report by Lord Crowther-Hunt and Alan T. Peacock suggested instead seven regional assemblies and governments within Great Britain, some elements of regional development and economic planning began to be established in England from the mid-1960s onwards

10.
South East England
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South East England is the most populous of the nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, as with the other regions of England, apart from Greater London, the south east has no elected government. It is the third largest region of England, with an area of 19,096 km², and is also the most populous with a population of over eight. Its proximity to London and connections to several national motorways have led to south east England becoming an economic hub and it is the location of Gatwick Airport, the UKs second-busiest airport, and its coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe. The region is known for its countryside, which includes the North Downs, the River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley. The region has many universities, the University of Oxford is ranked among the best in the world. South east England is host to sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta, Royal Ascot and the Epsom Derby. Some of the events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney, the largest city in the region is Brighton & Hove. The dominant influence on the economy is neighbouring London. The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 metres, until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region, which also included the counties of Bedfordshire, Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the area as the current government office region. The South East is also used as a synonym for the home counties. The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region, the major conurbations of the region include Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton, Portsmouth, Southampton and Reading. Settlements closer to London are part of the known as the Greater London Urban Area. The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London. Estimates in 2007 state 87. 2% of people as White British,4. 8% Other White,3. 5% South Asians,1. 5% Mixed Race,1. 6% Black British,0. 7% Chinese,0. 7% Other. The area also has some seats where there is support for other parties, for example, Slough and Oxford for Labour. Buckingham, the seat of Speaker John Bercow, is also in this region, out of 83 parliamentary seats, the Conservatives hold 78

11.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish

12.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

13.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

14.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information

15.
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995

16.
Thames Valley Police
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It is one of the largest territorial police forces in England covering 2,200 square miles and a population of over 2.1 million people. The police force consists of 4,244 constables,506 special constables,466 Police Community Support Officers and 2,576 police staff, the force was one of around twenty borough forces that amalgamated with their county police force. These were Buckinghamshire Constabulary, Oxfordshire Constabulary, Berkshire Constabulary, Reading Borough Police, under the Police Act 1964 these five forces were amalgamated on 1 April 1968 to form Thames Valley Constabulary. The incumbent commissioner is Anthony Stansfeld, a Conservative Party candidate elected with 34. 7% of the votes in the first round of voting and 57. 2% of the votes after the second round. The police and crime commissioner is scrutinised by the Thames Valley Police, Thames Valley was previously overseen by a police authority consisting of 19 members, made up of councillors, members from unitary authorities, independents and a magistrate. Following the implementation of the Local Policing Model in April 2011 and these are coterminous with local authority boundaries. These in turn are split into a number of neighbourhoods which are coterminous with parish boundaries and this alignment is to ensure that local policing services are delivered in an accountable manner. Other functions that used to be held at Basic Command Unit level are now delivered at Force Headquarters level using a service approach. These teams consist of officers, community support, special constables and police staff who work to patrol and they use marked vans which read neighbourhood policing on the side rear panel under the Thames Valley police corporate logo. These officers will typically be unarmed and rarely carry taser weapons, the neighbourhood police vans double up as prisoner transport vans when the larger detention van is off-area or busy. However most LPA police vehicles are available to this unit, LPA Response units work out of most major stations in the force area. These officer are often issued with Taser weapons. These officers may be tasked to high crime areas for an increased police presence or to conduct follow up investigations. Both the Neighbourhood Policing Group and Incident Response Unit units all share the LPA standard Vauxhall Astra police car, some rural police offices make use of Vauxhall Antaras as a more effective vehicle. However most divisions with the exception of the Slough, South Oxfordshire and Vale, Thames Valley Police have approximately 52 operational police dogs. The dogs are donated from the RSPCA or public, and are trained at the force headquarters. They usually serve until they are 8 years old, receiving refresher training every year, Thames Valley Police patrols 196 miles of motorways including the M1, M4, M40, A329, A404 and M25, as well as many other A route roads including the busy A43. Thames Valleys Roads Policing Team typically operate a diverse array of vehicles and these may include the Volvo S70 marked vehicles, S80 unmarked and marked Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4

17.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association

18.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards

19.
South Central Ambulance Service
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It is one of 10 NHS Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, as an ambulance service, SCAS primarily responds to emergency 999 calls, in addition to calls from the NHS non-emergency number. The service also provides a transport service for patients in life-threatening condition. The NEPTS transports patients unable to use public transport due to their conditions, patients using outpatient clinics. The Trust also has a division, which provides first aid training to members of the public. It has a resilience and specialist operations department which plans for major or hazardous incidents and this includes a Hazardous Area Response Team, which responds to emergencies involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials, as well as major incidents. The Trust also trains and supports volunteer community first responders and it is the only NHS ambulance organisation in the UK to be supported by its own League of Friends, a registered charity. This group had founded in 1982 to raise funds for the former Oxfordshire Ambulance NHS Trust. The Trust achieved Foundation status on 1 March 2012, becoming known as South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. In June 2011 it was named Englands top performing ambulance service, managing to respond to 77. 5% of Cat A calls within the 8 minute target time, compared to the national average of 74. 9%. In October 2011 the BBC discovered that SCAS spent more on private ambulance services to cover 999 calls than any other service in the country, on 1 March 2012, the Trust became an NHS Foundation Trust. In October 2013 the Trust accidentally published on its website a document listing the age, sexuality and it took over patient transport services in Hampshire in October 2014. In 2014 the trust held a recruitment drive in Poland to help fill vacancies, on November 1st 2016, it was announced that the trust would take over the running of NEPTS in the south-east of England from April 2017. Performance of SCAS is provided by national NHS England Ambulance Quality Indicators,1. ^ A Red 1 call is assigned to patients in cardiac arrest. 2. ^ A Red 2 call is assigned to other potentially life-threatening incidents, such as stroke,3. ^ A Red 19 call is assigned to other incidents in which patient transport is needed

20.
List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
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There are 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, each electing a single Member of Parliament to the House of Commons every five years. Voting last took place in all 650 of those constituencies at the United Kingdom general election on 7 May 2015, in addition there is the constituency of the Speaker, which by tradition does not belong to any party. The number of seats rose from 646 at the 2005 general election after proposals made by the commissions for England, Wales. Constituencies in Scotland remained unchanged, as the Boundary Commission for Scotland had completed a review just before the 2005 general election, for the 2013 review this was primarily the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011. The Sainte-Laguë formula method is used to form groups of seats split between the four parts of the United Kingdom and the English Regions, the electorate figures given in the second column of the tables below are those used by the commissions during their reviews. These electorate figures date from the start of the review in each country, England, February 2000, Scotland, June 2001, Wales, December 2002, and Northern Ireland, May 2003. Of the 650 seats listed below,533 are in England,59 in Scotland,40 in Wales and 18 in Northern Ireland, Scotland – No changes from 2005 election. Wales – Number of seats unchanged, three seats were abolished and three were created, Aberconwy, Arfon, and Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Northern Ireland – No extra or fewer seats allocated. England, North Yorkshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Norfolk, Essex, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, isle of Wight maintained its status as one constituency, the largest by electorate. The City of York was divided into two seats, neither overlapping part of North Yorkshire, North London, Birmingham and the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear and South Yorkshire lost a seat each. Herefordshire and Worcestershire, to reflect their full reinstatement as separate counties, were considered in separate reviews, bath, Bristol and Somerset underwent arguably the most significant changes to reflect the abolition of Avon. Updated electorate figures from December 2010 have been added for the English, lists of electoral districts by nation Boundary Commission for N. I. Fifth Periodical Report – Parliamentary Constituencies of Northern Ireland

21.
Maidenhead (UK Parliament constituency)
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Maidenhead is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has been represented since its 1997 creation by Theresa May and it is considered a safe seat for the Conservative Party, as it has never been held by a party other than the Conservatives, and nor were any of its predecessor constituencies. The constituency was created in 1997 from parts of the seats of Windsor and Maidenhead, Theresa May, the Prime Minister, has represented it since its creation. In the 2010 general election May achieved the 9th highest share of the vote of the 307 seats held by a Conservative, a minority commute to the City of London which is just under one hours commute from the two mainline stations. Taking the constituent electoral ward results since the decline of the Liberal Party in the 1910s, the seats largest settlement is the town of Maidenhead in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire. List of Parliamentary constituencies in Berkshire Notes References

22.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

23.
John Leland (antiquary)
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John Leland or Leyland was an English poet and antiquary. Leland has been described as the father of English local history, most evidence for Lelands life and career comes from his own writings, especially his poetry. He was born in London on 13 September, most probably in about 1503, having lost both his parents at an early age, he and his brother were raised by Thomas Myles. Leland was educated at St Pauls School, London, under its first headmaster and it was here that he already met some of his future benefactors, notably William Paget. Leland was subsequently sent to Christs College, Cambridge, graduating in 1522, while studying there, he was for a short time imprisoned, having accused a certain knight of collaborating with Richard de la Pole, the Yorkist claimant to the throne. He proceeded to Lambeth, London, serving Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, when the duke died in 1524, the king sent Leland to Oxford, where as Anthony Wood later claimed from tradition, he became a fellow of All Souls College. He would later deplore the state of education at Oxford, which he felt was too conservative in its approach to classical studies, between 1526 and 1528, Leland proceeded to Paris, studying along with many fellow expatriates, both English and German. His original plan to study in Italy, too, never succeeded, Leland honed his skills at composing Latin poetry and sought the acquaintance of humanist scholars whom he much admired, such as Guillaume Budé and Jacques Lefèvre dÉtaples. A scholar of particular importance for Leland was François Dubois, professor at the Collège de Tournai, who had a profound effect on his poetic as well as antiquarian interests. While in France, Leland kept in touch with his friends and sponsors in England, probably including Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, by 1529, Leland had returned to England. He was appointed one of the chaplains to King Henry VIII, in 1533, Leland received papal dispensation for four benefices, on condition that he became subdeacon within two years and priest within seven. He was appointed prebendary of Wilton Abbey in 1535 and received two adjacent benefices, Leland and Nicholas Udall composed verses to be read or recited at the pageant of Anne Boleyns arrival in London in 1533, which was staged for the occasion of her coronation. Their common patron was probably Thomas, Duke of Norfolk and Cornwall, the poets worked together again during 1533 and 1534, when Leland contributed verses for Udalls Floures for Latine Spekynge. In 1533, the king appears to have entrusted Leland with a document, a moste gratius commission, which authorized him to examine and use the libraries of all religious houses in England. Leland spent the few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved. About 1535, he met the ex-Carmelite churchman and fellow antiquary John Bale, in the 1530s and 1540s, the royal library was reorganised to accommodate hundreds of books that were previously kept in monastic collections. Leland himself describes how Henrys palaces at Greenwich, Hampton Court, Lelands part in this is uncertain. There is no evidence that he oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarians wages

24.
Cox Green, Berkshire
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Cox Green is a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England with most of its housing divided only by a major, embanked road from Maidenhead. The remainder of area is rural. The parish is bounded by the A4 road to the north, the A404 motorway to the northeast, the M4 motorway to the southeast. The original village was ecclesiastically a hamlet under Bray church that had a nucleus by Cox Green Lane, Cox Green Road and Norden Road, parts of this are now outside the current parish boundary. The second half of the 20th Century saw an expansion of housing, including Woodlands Park to the west. Cox Green School shares a site with the adjacent Community Centre on Highfield Road, providing local facilities as a library. The parish church, Church of the Good Shepherd, is in the Community Centre in Highfield Road, the oldest building in the parish is Ockwells Manor by Ockwells park which once belonged to it. A Roman Villa was discovered from aerial photographs in the 1950s and was excavated in 1959 in advance of the building of the present housing estate. Maidenhead 3 miles Reading, Berkshire 12 miles Windsor 8 miles Media related to Cox Green, Berkshire at Wikimedia Commons - Cox Green Parish Council web site Wessex Primary School - School web site

25.
Silchester
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Silchester is a village and civil parish about 5 miles north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about 9 miles south-west of Reading, the present village is centred on Silchester Common. It is about 1 mile west of the Church of England parish church and former manor house, Silchester is a civil parish with an elected parish council. The ward returns two councillors to the borough council, the 2011 census recorded a parish population of 921. There is a village link minibus service which serves Pamber Heath and it is necessary to pre-book this service by contacting Hampshire County Council. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded that the Normans William De Ow and Ralph de Mortimer possessed Alestans, the book assessed Alestans manor at five hides and Mortimers at three hides. De Mortimers tenant was another Norman, Ralph Bluet, in 1204 he or a later Ralph Bluet gave a palfrey horse in exchange for a licence to enclose an area of land south-east of the former Roman town as a deer park. Today parts of the park pale survive and parts of the former park remain wooded. Forms of the toponym included Ciltestere and Cilcestre in the 13th century, Scilchestre in the 14th century and Sylkchester in the 18th century before it reached its current spelling. The Irish peer Murrough Boyle, 1st Viscount Blesington bought the manor in 1704 and it remained with his heirs until the death of William Stewart. In 1778 it was inherited jointly by Thomas Vesey, 1st Viscount de Vesci and Edward Pakenham, in 1806 Baron Longfords daughter The Hon. Catherine Pakenham married Arthur Wellesley, who in 1814 was created Duke of Wellington. In 1821 Catherines brother Thomas Pakenham, 2nd Earl of Longford was created Baron Silchester, in the first decade of the 20th century Arthur Wellesley, 4th Duke of Wellington still owned the manor of Silchester. The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is just within the walls of the former Roman town, the building may contain some re-used Roman materials. The building dates from the late 12th or early 13th century and it has a north and south aisle, each of two bays. There is no arch, and the chancel is longer than the nave. The wall of the aisle was rebuilt in about 1325–50. Two new windows were added to the church the 14th century, the church has a Perpendicular Gothic rood screen. The pulpit was made early in the 18th century but its tester is dated 1639, there is also a carved memorial cartouche to the Irish peer Viscount Ikerrin

26.
Calleva Atrebatum
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Calleva, formally Calleva Atrebatum, was an Iron Age oppidum and subsequently a town in the Roman province of Britannia and the civitas capital of the Atrebates tribe. Reading is some 9 miles north-east and Basingstoke is 5 miles south, the Ordnance Survey grid reference is SU639624. Evidence for the presence of a Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester is derived from numismatic evidence, the Late Iron Age oppidum was situated on the edge of a gravel plateau, underlying the subsequent Roman town. The Inner Earthwork, constructed c.1 AD, enclosed an area of 32ha, small areas of Late Iron Age occupation have been uncovered on the south side of the Inner Earthwork and around the South Gate. More detailed evidence for Late Iron Age occupation was excavated below the Forum-Basilica, several roundhouses, wells and pits were present on a north-east - south-west alignment, dated to c.25 BC -15 BC. Subsequent occupation, dated to c.15 BC - AD 40/50, consisted of metalled streets, rubbish pits, imported Gallo-Belgic finewares, amphorae and iron and copper-alloy brooches show that the settlement was high status. Also distinctive evidence for food was identified, including oyster shell, further areas of Late Iron Age occupation have been uncovered by the Insula IX Town Life Project. After the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD the settlement developed into the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum and it was slightly larger, about 40 hectares, and was laid out along a distinctive street grid pattern. The town contained a number of buildings and flourished until the early Anglo-Saxon period. A large mansio was situated in Insula VIII, near the South Gate, the Devils Highway connected it with the provincial capital Londinium. From Calleva, this road divided into routes to other points west, including the road to Aquae Sulis, Ermin Way to Glevum. Silchester was finally abandoned in the 5th to 7th century, which is unusually late compared to other deserted Roman settlements, ford identifies the site with the Cair Celemion of Nenniuss list of the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain. Most Roman towns in Britain continued to exist after the end of the Roman era, and consequently their remains underlay their more recent successors, there is a suggestion that the Saxons deliberately avoided Calleva after it was abandoned, preferring to maintain their existing centres at Winchester and Dorchester. There was a gap of perhaps a century before the twin Saxon towns of Basing and Reading were founded on either side of Calleva. As a consequence, Calleva has been subject to relatively benign neglect for most of the last two millennia, the earthworks and, for much of the circumference, the ruined walls are still visible. The remains of the amphitheatre, added about AD 70-80 and situated outside the city walls, the area inside the walls is now largely farmland with no visible distinguishing features, other than the enclosing earthworks and walls, with a tiny mediaeval church in one corner. There is a spring that emanates from inside the walls, in the vicinity of the baths. This excavation was believed to have destroyed evidence that might have been analysed with current technology, as archaeological study of this kind can be a destructive process, the excavation of Calleva is frequently mentioned as an example of why complete excavation should not be performed

27.
Colchester
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Colchester /ˈkoʊltʃɛstər/ is an historic large town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in the county of Essex. As the oldest recorded Roman town in Britain, Colchester is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain and it was for a time the capital of Roman Britain, and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network. Colchester is some 50 miles northeast of London and is connected to the capital by the A12 road and it is seen as a popular town for commuters, and is less than 30 miles away from Stansted Airport and 20 miles from the passenger ferry port of Harwich. Colchester is home to Colchester Castle and Colchester United Football Club and it has a Conservative Member of Parliament, Will Quince, who was elected in the 2015 General Election. The River Colne runs through the town and it is a widely held belief that the name Colchester is derived from the Latin words Colonia and Castra, meaning fortifications. The earliest forms of the name Colchester are Colenceaster and Colneceastre from the 10th century, in this way of interpreting the name, the River Colne which runs through the town takes its name from Colonia as well. Cologne also gained its name from a similar etymology, ekwall went as far as to say it has often been held that Colchester contains as first element colonia. This derivation is ruled out of court by the fact that Colne is the name of old villages situated a good many miles from Colchester. The identification of Colonia with Colchester is doubtful, from these deposits beneath the town have been found Palaeolithic flint tools, including at least six Acheulian handaxes. Further flint tools made by hunter gatherers living in the Colne Valley during the Mesolithic have been discovered and this included a pit found at Culver Street containing a ritually placed Neolithic grooved ware pot, as well as find spots containing later Deverel-Rimbury bucket urns. Before the Roman conquest of Britain it was already a centre of power for Cunobelin – known to Shakespeare as Cymbeline – king of the Catuvellauni, who minted coins there. Its Celtic name, Camulodunon, variously represented as CA, CAM, CAMV, CAMVL and CAMVLODVNO on the coins of Cunobelinus, during the 30s AD Camulodunon controlled a large swathe of Southern and Eastern Britain, with Cunobelin called King of the Britons by Roman writers. Camulodunon is considered one of possible sites around Britain for the legendary Camelot of King Arthur. Soon after the Roman conquest of Britain in AD43, a Roman legionary fortress was established, later, when the Roman frontier moved outwards and the twentieth legion had moved to the west, Camulodunum became a colonia named in a second-century inscription as Colonia Victricensis. This contained a large and elaborate Temple to the Divine Claudius, Colchester is home to two of the five Roman theatres found in Britain, the one at Gosbecks being the largest in Britain, able to seat 5,000. Camulodunum served as a provincial Roman capital of Britain, but was attacked and destroyed during Boudicas rebellion in AD61, sometime after the destruction, London became the capital of the province of Britannia. Colchesters town walls c.3,000 yd. long were built c. 65–80 A. D. when the Roman town was rebuilt after the Boudicca rebellion. In 2004, Colchester Archaeological Trust discovered the remains of a Roman Circus underneath the Garrison in Colchester, the Roman town of Camulodunum, officially known as Colonia Victricensis, reached its peak in the Second and Third centuries AD

28.
Camulodunum
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Camulodunum, the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important town in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. It is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain, the Roman town began life as a Roman Legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by the Emperor Claudius. After the early town was destroyed during the Iceni rebellion in 60/1 AD, it was rebuilt, reaching its zenith in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. During this time it was known by its official name Colonia Claudia Victricensis, often shortened to Colonia Victricensis, and as Camulodunum and it may have reached a population of 30,000 at its height. It wasnt until the late 18th century that historians realised that Colchesters physical Brythonic, the earliest Iron Age defensive site at Colchester is the Pitchbury Ramparts earthwork north of the town between West Bergholt and Great Horkesley. The main earthwork defences of the Brythonic Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon were built later, beginning in the 1st century BC and they are considered the most extensive of their kind in Britain. The defences consist of lines of ditches and ramparts, possibly palisaded with gateways, other earthworks close off eastern parts of the settlement. These earthworks gave the oppidum its Brythonic Celtic name - Camulodunon meant The Stronghold of Camulus, together they enclose an area of 1, 000ha, much larger than the area enclosed by the Iron Age defences at Wheathampstead. The main sites within the bounds of these defences are the Gosbecks farmstead, the Sheepen industrial area, the Gosbecks site consists of a large, high-status farmstead, believed to be the home of the tribal chieftains of Camulodunon. Part of the Gosbecks complex is a large, square enclosure surrounded by a deep and this has been interpreted as part of a possible religious site, as during the Roman period a large temple was built in the middle of this enclosure. Two coins minted at Sheepen, one found in Colchester in 1980 and another found at Canturbury in 1978, depict boats, amphorae containing imported goods from the continent have been found at Sheepen, as have pieces of imported Samian pottery. The Lexden area around the mounds contains several Iron Age cremation burial groups, including one containing the Mirror burial, a large cluster of cremations from St. Clares road and Fitzwalter Road close to the Lexden Tumulus date to 50-10 BC. Scattered Roundhouses and burials have been discovered amongst these droveways, the defences were designed to protect the high status and industrial areas as well as prevent cattle rustling of valuable herds. Two large groups existed at Peldon and Tolleshunt DArcy, Camulodunon may have been an at the centre of the local trade in this important preservative. Addedomarus, a king of the Trinovantes tribe, is the first identifiable ruler of Camulodunon and his son Dubnovellaunus succeeded him, but was soon supplanted by Tasciovanus son Cunobelinus. Cunobelinus then succeeded his father at Verlamion, beginning the dominance of the Catuvellauni over the south-east, Cunobelinus was friendly with Rome, marking his coins with the word REX and classical motifs rather than the traditional Gallo-Belgic designs. Archaeology shows an increase in imported goods, probably through the Sheepen site port of Camulodunon. He was probably one of the British kings that Strabo says sent embassies to Augustus, Strabo reports Romes lucrative trade with Britain, the islands exports included grain, gold, silver, iron, hides, slaves and hunting dogs

29.
St Albans
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St Albans /sənt ˈɔːlbənz/, /seɪn. / is a city in Hertfordshire, England, and the major urban area in the City and District of St Albans. It lies east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, about 19 miles north-northwest of London,8 miles southwest of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles south-southeast of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and it is a historic market town and is now a dormitory town within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. St Albans takes its name from the first British saint, Alban, Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from his persecutors and sheltered him in his house, where he became so impressed with the priests piety that he converted to Christianity. When the authorities searched Albans house, he put on the priests cloak, consequently, he was sentenced to endure the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest, unless he renounced Christianity. Alban refused and was taken for execution, in later legends, his head rolled downhill after execution and a well sprang up where it stopped. The name Verulamium is Celtic, meaning settlement over or by the marsh, the town was on Prae Hill,2 km to the west of modern St Albans, now covered by the village of St. Michaels, Verulamium Park and the Gorhambury Estate. It is believed that the capital was moved to the site by Tasciovanus. Cunobelinus may have constructed Beech Bottom Dyke, an earthwork near the settlement whose significance is uncertain. It grew steadily, by the early 3rd century, it covered an area of about 125 acres, behind a deep ditch and wall. Verulamium contained a forum, basilica and a theatre, much of which were damaged during two fires, one in 155 and the other in around 250, one of the few extant Roman inscriptions in Britain is found on the remnants of the forum. The town was rebuilt in stone rather than timber at least twice over the next 150 years, occupation by the Romans ended between 400 and 450. St Alban was probably buried outside the city walls in a Roman cemetery near the present Cathedral and his hillside grave became a place of pilgrimage. Recent investigation has uncovered a basilica there, indicating the oldest continuous site of Christian worship in Great Britain, in 429 Germanus of Auxerre visited the church and subsequently promoted the cult of St Alban. More remains under the agricultural land which have never been excavated were for a while seriously threatened by deep ploughing. After the Roman withdrawal the town, became the centre of the territory or regio of the Anglo-Saxon Waeclingas tribe, St Albans Abbey and the associated Anglo-Saxon settlement were founded on the hill outside the Roman city where it was believed St Alban was buried. An archaeological excavation in 1978, directed by Martin Biddle, failed to find Roman remains on the site of the chapter house. The medieval town grew on the hill to the east of Wæclingacaester where the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans was founded by Ulsinus in 793, there is some evidence that the original site was higher up the hill than the present building, which was begun in 1077

30.
Verulamium
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Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited in the southwest of the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, the ancient Watling Street passed through the city. Much of the site and its environs is now classed as an ancient monument. Before the Romans established their settlement, there was already a centre in the area which belonged to the Catuvellauni. This settlement is usually called Verlamion, the etymology is uncertain but the name has been reconstructed as *Uerulāmion, which would have a meaning like of the broad hand in Brittonic. In this pre-Roman form, it was among the first places in Britain recorded by name, the settlement was established by Tasciovanus, who minted coins there. The Roman settlement was granted the rank of municipium around AD50, meaning its citizens had what were known as Latin Rights and it grew steadily, by the early 3rd century, it covered an area of about 125 acres, behind a deep ditch and wall. It is the location of the martyrdom of the first British martyr saint, Saint Alban, Verulamium contained a forum, basilica and a theatre, much of which were damaged during two fires, one in 155 and the other in around 250. One of the few extant Roman inscriptions in Britain is found on the remnants of the forum, the town was rebuilt in stone rather than timber at least twice over the next 150 years. Occupation by the Romans ended between 400 and 450, more remains under the nearby agricultural land which have never been excavated were for a while seriously threatened by deep ploughing. St Albans Abbey and the associated Anglo-Saxon settlement were founded on a hill outside the Roman city, the site of the abbey may have been a location where there was reason to believe that St Alban was executed or buried. More certainly, the abbey is near the site of a Roman cemetery and it is unknown whether there are Roman remains under the medieval abbey. An archaeological excavation in 1978, directed by Martin Biddle, failed to find Roman remains on the site of the chapter house. David Nash Ford identifies the community as the Cair Mincip listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain in his History of the Britains. The modern city takes its name from Alban, either a citizen of Verulamium or a Roman soldier, who was condemned to death in the 3rd century for sheltering Amphibalus, a Christian. Alban was converted by him to Christianity, and by virtue of his death, since much of the modern city and its environs is built over Roman remains, it is still common to unearth Roman artefacts several miles away. A complete tile kiln was found in Park Street some six miles from Verulamium in the 1970s, no trace of it is left, but Aubrey noted, At Verulam is to be seen, in some few places, some remains of the wall of this Citie

31.
Wharf
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A wharf, quay, staith or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbor or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths, and may also include piers, warehouses, a wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings. Commercial ports may have warehouses that serve as storage areas. A pier, raised over the rather than within it, is commonly used for cases where the weight or volume of cargos will be low. Smaller and more modern wharves are sometimes built on devices to keep them at the same level as the ship. In some contexts wharf and quay may be used to mean pier, berth, in old ports such as London many old wharves have been converted to residential or office use. Certain early railways in England referred to goods loading points as wharves, the term was carried over from marine usage. The person who was resident in charge of the wharf was referred to as a wharfinger. The word wharf comes from the Old English hwearf, meaning bank or shore, wharfage also refers to a fee charged by ports for the cargo handled there. Originally, werf or werva in Old Dutch simply referred to inhabited ground that was not yet built on and this could explain the name Ministry Wharf located at Saunderton, just outside High Wycombe, which is nowhere near any body of water. In support of this explanation is the fact that places in England with wharf in their names are in areas with a high Dutch influence. In the northeast and east of England the term staith or staithe is also used, both originally referred to staithes in the sense of jetties or wharves. However, the term staith may also be used to only to loading chutes or ramps used for bulk commodities like coal in loading ships. Quay, on the hand, has its origin in the Proto-Celtic language. Before it changed to its current form under influence of the modern French quai, its Middle English spelling was key and this in turn also came from the Old North French cai, both roughly meaning sand bank. The Old French term came from Gaulish caium, ultimately tracing back to the Proto-Celtic *kagio- to encompass, modern cognates include Welsh cae fence, hedge and Cornish ke hedge. Canal basin Dock Port Safeguarded wharf The dictionary definition of wharf at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of quay at Wiktionary

32.
Anglo-Saxon England
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Anglo-Saxon England was early medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th century from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927 when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan and it became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway in the 11th century. The Anglo-Saxons were the members of Germanic-speaking groups who migrated to the half of the island from continental Europe. Anglo-Saxon identity survived beyond the Norman conquest, came to be known as Englishry under Norman rule, Bede completed his book Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum in around 731. Thus the term for English people was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent, the historian James Campbell suggested that it was not until the late Anglo-Saxon period that England could be described as a nation state. It is certain that the concept of Englishness only developed very slowly, as the Roman occupation of Britain was coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army, in reaction to the barbarian invasion of Europe. The Romano-British leaders were faced with a security problem from seaborne raids. The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, in about 442 the Anglo-Saxons mutinied, apparently because they had not been paid. There then followed several years of fighting between the British and the Anglo-Saxons, the fighting continued until around 500, when, at the Battle of Mount Badon, the Britons inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons. There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before the collapse of the Roman Empire and it is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the 14th Legion in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in AD43. There is a hypothesis that some of the tribes, identified as Britons by the Romans. It was quite common for Rome to swell its legions with foederati recruited from the German homelands and this practice also extended to the army serving in Britain, and graves of these mercenaries, along with their families, can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period. The migration continued with the departure of the Roman army, when Anglo-Saxons were recruited to defend Britain, and also during the period of the Anglo-Saxon first rebellion of 442. The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain can be seen in the context of a movement of Germanic peoples around Europe between the years 300 and 700, known as the Migration period. In the same there were migrations of Britons to the Armorican peninsula, initially around 383 during Roman rule. The historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded what is now regarded as the view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. He suggested a mass immigration, fighting and driving the Sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the extremities of the islands. This view was influenced by sources such as Bede, where he talks about the Britons being slaughtered or going into perpetual servitude

33.
Wessex
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Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unified by Æthelstan in the early 10th century. The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, the two main sources for the history of Wessex are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List, which sometimes conflict. Wessex became a Christian kingdom after Cenwalh was baptised and was expanded under his rule, cædwalla later conquered Sussex, Kent and the Isle of Wight. His successor, Ine, issued one of the oldest surviving English law codes, the throne subsequently passed to a series of kings with unknown genealogies. During the 8th century, as the hegemony of Mercia grew and it was during this period that the system of shires was established. Under Egbert, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, and Mercia and he also obtained the overlordship of the Northumbrian king. However, Mercian independence was restored in 830, during the reign of his successor, Æthelwulf, a Danish army arrived in the Thames estuary, but was decisively defeated. When Æthelwulfs son, Æthelbald, usurped the throne, the kingdom was divided to avoid war, Æthelwulf was succeeded in turn by his four sons, the youngest being Alfred the Great. Wessex was invaded by the Danes in 871, and Alfred was compelled to pay them to leave and they returned in 876, but were forced to withdraw. In 878 they forced Alfred to flee to the Somerset Levels, during his reign Alfred issued a new law code, gathered scholars to his court and was able to devote funds to building ships, organising an army and establishing a system of burhs. Alfreds son, Edward, captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes and became ruler of Mercia in 918 upon the death of his sister, Edwards son, Æthelstan, conquered Northumbria in 927, and England became a unified kingdom for the first time. Cnut the Great, who conquered England in 1016, created the wealthy and powerful earldom of Wessex, modern archaeologists use the term Wessex culture for a Middle Bronze Age culture in this area. Although agriculture and hunting were pursued during this period, there is little archaeological evidence of human settlements. During the Roman occupation numerous country villas with attached farms were established across Wessex, the Romans, or rather the Romano-British, built another major road that integrated Wessex, running eastwards from Exeter through Dorchester to Winchester and Silchester and on to London. The early 4th century CE was a time in Roman Britain. However, following a previous incursion in 360 that was stopped by Roman forces and they devastated many parts of Britain and laid siege to London. The Romans responded promptly, and Count Theodosius had recovered the land up to the Wall by 368, the Romans temporarily ceased to rule Britain on the death of Magnus Maximus in 388. Stilicho attempted to restore Roman authority in the late 390s, two subsequent Roman rulers of Britain, appointed by the remaining troops, were murdered

34.
Reading, Berkshire
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Reading is a large, historically important town in Berkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway, Today Reading is a major commercial centre, with involvement in information technology and insurance, and, despite its proximity to London, has a net inward commuter flow. The first evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, by 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the 10th largest town in England when measured by taxable wealth. By 1611, it had a population of over 5000 and had grown rich on its trade in cloth, the 18th century saw the beginning of a major iron works in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. During the 19th century, the town rapidly as a manufacturing centre. It is ranked the UKs top economic area for economic success and wellbeing, according to such as employment, health, income. Reading is also a regional retail centre serving a large area of the Thames Valley. Every year it hosts the Reading Festival, one of Englands biggest music festivals, sporting teams based in Reading include Reading Football Club and the London Irish rugby union team, and over 15,000 runners annually compete in the Reading Half Marathon. In 2015, Reading had an population of 232,662. The town is represented in Parliament by two members, and has been continuously represented there since 1295, for ceremonial purposes the town is in the county of Berkshire and has served as its county town since 1867, previously sharing this status with Abingdon-on-Thames. It is in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway. Reading is 75 miles east of Bristol,25 miles south of Oxford,42 miles west of London,17 miles north of Basingstoke,13 miles south-west of Maidenhead and 20 miles east of Newbury. Reading may date back to the Roman occupation of Britain, possibly as a port for Calleva Atrebatum. However the first clear evidence for Reading as a settlement dates from the 8th century, the name probably comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means Readas People in Old English, or less probably the Celtic Rhydd-Inge, meaning Ford over the River. In late 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex, on 4 January 871, in the first Battle of Reading, King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes defences. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and that account provides the earliest known record of the existence of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when they retreated to their quarters in London. After the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror gave land in, in its 1086 Domesday Book listing, the town was explicitly described as a borough

35.
Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth

36.
A4 road (England)
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The A4 is a major road in England from Central London to Avonmouth via Heathrow Airport, Reading, Bath and Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road, the road was once the main route from London to Bath and the west of England and formed, after the A40, the second main western artery from London. The A4 has gone through many transformations through the ages from pre-Roman routes, Roman roads, during the Middle Ages, most byways and tracks served to connect villages with their nearest market town. A survey of Savernake Forest near Hungerford in 1228 mentions The King’s Street running between the town and Marlborough and this street corresponded roughly with the route of the modern A4. In 1632, Thomas Witherings was appointed Postmaster of Foreign Mails by Charles I, Three years later, the king charged him with building six Great Roads to aid in the delivery of the post, of which the Great West Road was one. It was not until the 17th century that a route between London and Bristol started to resemble todays road. During the 17th century, the A4 was known as the Great Road to Bristol, when Queen Anne started patronising the spa city of Bath, the road became more commonly known as Bath Road. Over the years, the direction of the road has taken many detours depending on such factors as changes in tolls or turnpike patronage, the first turnpike on this road was between Reading and Theale in 1714. Due to increasing traffic, sections of the road between Kensington, over Hounslow Hill, to Twyford were turnpike by 1717 with the remaining sections placed under turnpike trusts. This was not always the case with the Bath Road, as many of the landowners along the route co-operated informally. As a result, control of the Bath Road was easy to maintain, tollhouses were established at Colnbrook, Maidenhead, Twyford, Castle Street Reading, Thatcham and Benham. During the 1820s, the employment of good surveyors improved the condition of the road, the tolls raised from such clientele ensured that when the turnpike trusts handed over the route to local highway boards, they had no financial liabilities. Justices of the Peace were empowered by the 1862 Rural Highways Act to combine turnpike trusts into Highways Districts and this meant that by the late 1860s trusts were either not renewing their powers or were being terminated by General Acts of Parliament. For example, most turnpikes in Berkshire, including the Bath Road, were officially wound up by 1878 when legislation transferred responsibility for dis-enturnpiked roads to the new county councils. With the improvement being made to the systems, the business of moving mail became easier. In Bristol, an office had been well established by the 1670s. The journey time to London at this period was about 16, a letter from Bath in 1684 took about 3 days going via a postal office in Marshfield on the Bristol Road. Journey times during the Turnpike era fell with the improvements from 2 days in 1752 to 38 hours in 1782 and 18 hours by 1836, Royal Mail coaches in 1836 were able to do the trip in 12 to 13 hours

37.
Gloucester
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Gloucester is a city and district in southwest England, the county city of Gloucestershire. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, on the River Severn, Gloucester was founded in AD97 by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, and was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II. Economically, the city is dominated by the industries, and has a strong financial and business sector. The origins of the name Gloucester can be traced to Caerloyw in the modern Welsh, there are various appellations in history such as Caer Glow, Gleawecastre, Gleucestre as an early British settlement is not confirmed by direct evidence. However, Gloucester was the Roman municipality of Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or Glevum, parts of the walls can be traced, and a number of remains and coins have been found, though inscriptions are scarce. In Historia Brittonum, an account of the early rulers of Britain, Vortigerns grandfather. Part of the foundations of Roman Gloucester can be today in Eastgate Street, while Roman tombstones. After the withdrawal on the Roman Empire in the late 4th Century the town returned to the control of Celtic Dubonni tribe. By the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gloucester is shown as part of Wessex from the Battle of Deorham in 577 until 584, Gloucester was captured by the Saxons in 577. In the early 10th century the remains of Saint Oswald were brought to a church in Gloucester. The core street layout is thought to date back to the reign of Ethelfleda in late Saxon times. In 1051 Edward the Confessor held court at Gloucester and was threatened there by a led by Godwin, Earl of Wessex. A unique coin, dated to 1077–80, was discovered, just north of the city and it features the name of the moneyer Silacwine and its place of minting. The Portable Antiquities Scheme said that, until the coin was discovered, after the Norman Conquest, William Rufus made Robert Fitzhamon the first baron or overlord of Gloucester. Fitzhamon had a base at Cardiff Castle, and for the succeeding years the history of Gloucester was closely linked to that of Cardiff. During the Anarchy, Gloucester was a centre of support for the Empress Matilda who was supported in her claim to the throne by her half-brother, Fitzhamons grandson, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester. The story of the Anarchy is vividly told in a series of paintings by William Burges at the Castle. King Henry II granted Gloucester its first charter in 1155, which gave the burgesses the same liberties as the citizens of London, a a second charter of Henry II gave them freedom of passage on the River Severn

38.
Bristol
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Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts, Bristol was surpassed by the rapid rise of Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham in the Industrial Revolution. Bristol was a place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian, in 1499 William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, the Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock. Bristols modern economy is built on the media, electronics and aerospace industries. The city has the largest circulating community currency in the U. K. - the Bristol pound, which is pegged to the Pound sterling. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road, rail, sea and air by the M5 and M4, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations, and Bristol Airport. The Sunday Times named it as the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017, the most ancient recorded name for Bristol is the archaic Welsh Caer Odor, which is consistent with modern understanding that early Bristol developed between the River Frome and Avon Gorge. It is most commonly stated that the Saxon name Bricstow was a calque of the existing Celtic name, with Bric a literal translation of Odor. Alternative etymologies are supported with the numerous variations in Medieval documents with Samuel Seyer enumerating 47 alternative forms. The Old English form Brycgstow is commonly used to derive the meaning place at the bridge, utilizing another form, Brastuile, Rev. Dr. Shaw derived the name from the Celtic words bras, or braos and tuile. The poet Thomas Chatterton popularised a derivation from Brictricstow linking the town to Brictric and it appears that the form Bricstow prevailed until 1204, and the Bristolian L is what eventually changed the name to Bristol. Iron Age hill forts near the city are at Leigh Woods and Clifton Down, on the side of the Avon Gorge, a Roman settlement, Abona, existed at what is now Sea Mills, another was at the present-day Inns Court. Isolated Roman villas and small forts and settlements were scattered throughout the area. Bristol was founded by 1000, by about 1020, it was a centre with a mint producing silver pennies bearing its name

39.
Ford (crossing)
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A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading, or inside a vehicle getting its wheels wet. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, a ford is a much cheaper form of river crossing than a bridge, but it may become impassable after heavy rain or during flood conditions. A ford is therefore only suitable for very minor roads. Most modern fords are usually enough to be crossed by cars. In New Zealand, however, fords are a part of major roads, including, until 2010. As most inter-city domestic passengers travel by air and as much cargo goes by sea, long distance road traffic is low, in dry weather, drivers become aware of a ford by crunching across outwash detritus on the roadway. A Bailey bridge may be built off the line of the road to carry emergency traffic during high water. At places where the water is enough, but the material on the riverbed will not support heavy vehicles. In such cases a curb is often placed on the side to prevent vehicles slipping off. Fords may be equipped with a post indicating the water depth. Some have an adjacent footbridge so that pedestrians may cross without getting their feet wet, a road running below the water level of a stream or river is often known as a watersplash. It is a name for a ford or stretch of wet road in some areas. They have become a feature in rallying courses. There are enthusiasts who seek out and drive through these water features, there are many old fords known as watersplashes in the United Kingdom. Examples are at Brockenhurst in Hampshire, Wookey in Somerset, some of these are being replaced by bridges as these are a more reliable form of crossing in adverse weather conditions. The Dean Ford in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, is mentioned in the deeds of this property, the ford has had to be maintained as a property boundary feature, despite several cars a year being washed away. Not just a British phenomenon, some very spectacular versions of the feature can be found in diverse locations. Australia has the Gulf Savannah, and others may be found in Canada, Italy, South Africa and they are also found on some Tennessee backroads, where they are referred to as underwater bridges

Maidenhead Bridge
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Maidenhead Bridge is a Grade I listed bridge carrying the A4 road over the River Thames between Maidenhead, Berkshire and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. It crosses the Thames on the reach above Bray Lock, about half a mile below Boulters Lock, the first bridge was built of wood in 1280 in what was then the hamlet of South Ellington. Within a few

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Maidenhead Bridge in 2011

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Flooding at Maidenhead Bridge, February 2014

River Thames
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The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames

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The Thames in London

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A statue of Old Father Thames by Raffaelle Monti at St John's Lock, Lechlade.

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The marker stone at the official source of the River Thames near Kemble.

Berkshire
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Berkshire is a county in south east England, west of London. It was recognised as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of Windsor Castle by the Queen in 1957, Berkshire is a county of historic origin and is a home county, a ceremonial county and a non-metropolitan county without a county council. Berkshire County Council was the ma

1.
Windsor Castle, viewed from the Long Walk

2.
Berkshire shown within England

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Aerial view of Virginia Water Lake on the southern edge of Windsor Great Park

4.
Physical map of Berkshire. From a book called Berkshire, by H. W. Monckton, published by Cambridge University Press, 1911. Map is credited to George Philip & Son, Ltd.

Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Gr

1.
Grid square TF. The map shows The Wash and the North Sea, as well as places within the counties of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

2.
Geodesy

London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city

1.
Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace and Central London skyline

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The name London may derive from the River Thames

Districts of England
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The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of government in England is not uniform. Some districts are styled as boroughs, cities, or royal boroughs, these are purely honorific titles, prior to the establishment of districts in the 1890s, the basic unit of loca

1.
Districts (England)

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
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The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a Royal Borough of Berkshire, in South East England. It is home to Windsor Castle, Eton College, Legoland and it inherited royal borough status from Windsor, the site of Windsor Castle. The local authority is Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council and it became a unitary authority on 1 April 1998 with

1.
Shown within Berkshire

Ceremonial counties of England
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The ceremonial counties, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England, are areas of England to which a Lord Lieutenant is appointed. The Local Government Act 1888 established county councils to assume the functions of Quarter Sessions in the counties. It created new entities called administrative counties, the Act further stipulated that ar

1.
Ceremonial counties (England)

Regions of England
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The regions are the highest tier of sub-national division in England. Between 1994 and 2011, nine regions had officially devolved functions within Government, while they no longer fulfil this role, they continue to be used for statistical and some administrative purposes. They define areas for the purposes of elections to the European Parliament, E

1.
Regions of England English regions

South East England
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South East England is the most populous of the nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, as with the other regions of England, apart from Greater London, the south east has no elected government. It is the third largest region of England,

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Uffington White Horse on the Berkshire Downs

2.
South East England region in England

3.
A notice in Oxford from the Government Office for the South East.

4.
Redhill with the diesel Class 166 service run by First Great Western to Reading as the line has not got the Third rail electrification fully installed on the North Downs Line.

Countries of the United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organiza

England
–
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain

1.
Stonehenge, a Neolithic monument

2.
Flag

3.
Boudica led an uprising against the Roman Empire

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Replica of a 7th-century ceremonial helmet from the Kingdom of East Anglia, found at Sutton Hoo

United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

1.
Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.

2.
Flag

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

4.
The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the Universit

1.
Street name signs on Birdbrook Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, showing old "Birmingham 22" (top) and modern "B44" postcodes.

Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk cod

1.
Location of the United Kingdom (dark green)

Thames Valley Police
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It is one of the largest territorial police forces in England covering 2,200 square miles and a population of over 2.1 million people. The police force consists of 4,244 constables,506 special constables,466 Police Community Support Officers and 2,576 police staff, the force was one of around twenty borough forces that amalgamated with their county

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Thames Valley Police Training College and Police Museum.

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Logo of Thames Valley Police

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Thames Valley Police station in St Aldate's, Oxford.

Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They

1.
A fire engine of the London Fire Brigade, the second-largest service in the country after the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of

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A Mercedes Sprinter ambulance of the South Western Ambulance Service responds to an emergency call

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The London Air Ambulance in action

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A paramedic's motorcycle in Birmingham

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Device of the Scottish Ambulance Service

South Central Ambulance Service
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It is one of 10 NHS Ambulance Trusts providing England with emergency medical services, and is part of the National Health Service, receiving direct government funding for its role. There is no charge to patients for use of the service, as an ambulance service, SCAS primarily responds to emergency 999 calls, in addition to calls from the NHS non-em

1.
Map of the South Central Ambulance Service's coverage

List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
–
There are 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, each electing a single Member of Parliament to the House of Commons every five years. Voting last took place in all 650 of those constituencies at the United Kingdom general election on 7 May 2015, in addition there is the constituency of the Speaker, which by tradition does not belong to any part

1.
United Kingdom

Maidenhead (UK Parliament constituency)
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Maidenhead is a constituency in Berkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It has been represented since its 1997 creation by Theresa May and it is considered a safe seat for the Conservative Party, as it has never been held by a party other than the Conservatives, and nor were any of its predecessor constituencies. The con

Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

1.
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

John Leland (antiquary)
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John Leland or Leyland was an English poet and antiquary. Leland has been described as the father of English local history, most evidence for Lelands life and career comes from his own writings, especially his poetry. He was born in London on 13 September, most probably in about 1503, having lost both his parents at an early age, he and his brother

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Line engraving by Charles Grignion the Elder (1772), purportedly taken from a bust of John Leland at All Souls College, Oxford. Sculptor Louis François Roubiliac (d. 1762) probably created the original bust.

Cox Green, Berkshire
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Cox Green is a civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England with most of its housing divided only by a major, embanked road from Maidenhead. The remainder of area is rural. The parish is bounded by the A4 road to the north, the A404 motorway to the northeast, the M4 motorway to the southeast. The original villag

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Lillibrooke Manor

Silchester
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Silchester is a village and civil parish about 5 miles north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about 9 miles south-west of Reading, the present village is centred on Silchester Common. It is about 1 mile west of the Church of England parish church and former manor house, Silchester is a civil pari

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The village sign in front of Silchester Village Hall

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Parish church of St Mary the Virgin behind the Roman town wall

Calleva Atrebatum
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Calleva, formally Calleva Atrebatum, was an Iron Age oppidum and subsequently a town in the Roman province of Britannia and the civitas capital of the Atrebates tribe. Reading is some 9 miles north-east and Basingstoke is 5 miles south, the Ordnance Survey grid reference is SU639624. Evidence for the presence of a Late Iron Age oppidum at Silcheste

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A map of major 2nd-century Roman roads, showing the importance of Calleva as a crossroads of routes leading west from Londinium (London)

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Site plan of Calleva Atrebatum

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A 180 cm figure standing on the exposed remaining wall

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Calleva's ruined amphitheatre

Colchester
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Colchester /ˈkoʊltʃɛstər/ is an historic large town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in the county of Essex. As the oldest recorded Roman town in Britain, Colchester is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain and it was for a time the capital of Roman Britain, and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network. C

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Colchester High Street

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Colchester Castle, constructed over the vaults of the ruined Temple of Claudius.

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The place of the execution of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle.

4.
A map of Colchester from 1940.

Camulodunum
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Camulodunum, the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important town in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. It is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain, the Roman town began life as a Roman Legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the Brythonic-Celtic fortress following its conquest by t

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Colchester's Roman Town Walls

2.
Coin of the Trinovantes minted at Camulodunon.

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Bronze coin of Cunobelin - note the letters CAMV for Camulodunon

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The Emperor Claudius personally oversaw the Roman attack on Camulodunon. The town was renamed Colonia Victricensis in honour of his triumph, and a Temple built there to worship him.

St Albans
–
St Albans /sənt ˈɔːlbənz/, /seɪn. / is a city in Hertfordshire, England, and the major urban area in the City and District of St Albans. It lies east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, about 19 miles north-northwest of London,8 miles southwest of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles south-southeast of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on t

1.
View of the west end of St Albans Abbey Church

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The early 15th century Clock Tower

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St Albans: French Row (to the left), Market Place (to the right), St Peter's Street and the tower of St Peter's Church (centre)

4.
Remains of Roman wall

Verulamium
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Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited in the southwest of the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, the ancient Watling Street passed through the city. Much of the site and its environs is now classed as an ancient monument. Before the Romans e

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Remains of the city walls

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Roman theatre

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Another stretch of Roman wall

Wharf
–
A wharf, quay, staith or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbor or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths, and may also include piers, warehouses, a wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings. Commercial ports may have wareho

2.
The Barbours Cut Terminal of the Port of Houston, USA. This cargo shipping terminal has a single large wharf with multiple berths.

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King Henry's Wharves, typical London wharves converted to apartments

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Wharf by Marriott/Pacquereau Bay on St. Thomas

Anglo-Saxon England
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Anglo-Saxon England was early medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th century from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927 when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan and it became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal unio

1.
Escomb Church, a restored 7th century Anglo-Saxon church. Church architecture and artefacts provide a useful source of historical information.

Wessex
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Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unified by Æthelstan in the early 10th century. The Anglo-Saxons believed that Wessex was founded by Cerdic and Cynric, the two main sources for the history of Wessex are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List, which sometimes

Reading, Berkshire
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Reading is a large, historically important town in Berkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway, Today Reading is a major commercial centre, with involvement in information technology and insurance, and, despite its proximity to London, has a net inward commuter flow. The first evi

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From top left: the Town Hall and St Laurence's Church, the Maiwand Lion, the Town Centre skyline from the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading Abbey and The Oracle

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The earliest map of Reading, published in 1611 by John Speed

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View of Reading from Caversham by Joseph Farington in 1793

4.
Reading Crown Court

Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about thi

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Domesday Book: an engraving published in 1900. Great Domesday (the larger volume) and Little Domesday (the smaller volume), in their 1869 bindings, lying on their older " Tudor " bindings.

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Great Domesday in its " Tudor " binding: a wood-engraving of the 1860s

3.
Domesday chest, the German-style iron-bound chest of c.1500 in which Domesday Book was kept in the 17th and 18th centuries

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Entries for Croydon and Cheam, Surrey, in the 1783 edition of Domesday Book

A4 road (England)
–
The A4 is a major road in England from Central London to Avonmouth via Heathrow Airport, Reading, Bath and Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road, the road was once the main route from London to Bath and the west of England and formed, after the A40, the second main western artery from L

1.
Strip Map of Bath Road 1786.

2.
A4 road

3.
View down New Fetter Lane from Holborn Circus, with J Sainsbury head office on the right

4.
Piccadilly Circus

Gloucester
–
Gloucester is a city and district in southwest England, the county city of Gloucestershire. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, on the River Severn, Gloucester was founded in AD97 by the Romans under Emperor Nerva as Colonia Glevum Nervensis, and was granted its first charter in 1155 by King Henry II. Economically, the city is dominated by t

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Gloucester and its cathedral

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Kip 's West prospect of Gloucester, c. 1725, emphasises the causeway and bridges traversing the water meadows of the floodplain.

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Gloucester in 1805

4.
Gloucester Docks at night

Bristol
–
Bristol is a city and county in South West England with a population of 449,300 in 2016. The district has the 10th largest population in England, while the Bristol metropolitan area is the 12th largest in the United Kingdom, the city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north

1.
Bristol

3.
Black and white etching showing the towers of St Stephen's Church, St Augustine the Less Church and Bristol Cathedral, published c.1850

4.
West front of Bristol Cathedral

Ford (crossing)
–
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading, or inside a vehicle getting its wheels wet. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, a ford is a much cheaper form of river crossing than a bridge, but it may become impassable after heavy rain or during flood conditions.

1.
Vehicle crossing a modern ford over a creek

2.
Crossing the Red River near Granite, Oklahoma in 1921

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Crossing the Milkhouse ford through Rock Creek in 1960

4.
The Rye Water Ford in North Ayrshire, a rare unmodernised crossing of a minor river

1.
The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

2.
A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

3.
Coin of Theodoric

4.
Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

2.
A nineteenth century Photochrom of the Great Bath at the Roman Baths. The entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is a later construction and was not a feature of the building in Roman days.

3.
Late in the 17th century Treasury Ministers began to attend the Commons regularly. They were given a reserved place, called the Treasury Bench, to the Speaker's right where the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet members sit today

4.
Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole, studio of Jean-Baptiste van Loo, 1740. Walpole is considered to have been Britain's first Prime Minister.

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The mock-medieval parish church with green copper spire on bell tower and tall nave is listed in the initial category, built in 1911.

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Berry Hill, part of the developed traditional core of Taplow which is mostly formal parkland with a minority of woodland and cultivated fields and hay meadows. The foot of the hill sits close to the boundary between Taplow and Maidenhead, and is situated opposite to Amerden Lane on the village's outskirts.

1.
From top left to bottom right: Oxford skyline panorama from St Mary's Church; Radcliffe Camera; High Street from above looking east; University College; High Street by night; Natural History Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum.